"This acquisition will also make Basware the market leader in e-Invoicing in the Benelux market."Basware acquires network and e-Invoicing business of leading Benelux operator Certipost -- Basware Corporation has on October 5, 2012 signed an agreement to acquire the network and e-Invoicing business of Certipost, a bpost company and the leading e-Invoice operator in the Benelux. Basware Corporation will establish a fully owned subsidiary in Belgium and the acquired assets and liabilities will be transferred to this entity. The closing of the acquisition will take place after the mandatory formalities under the Belgian legislation have been completed. Basware will consolidate the acquired business into its net sales and profit starting from the closing date. In 2012, the net sales of the acquired business are expected to amount to approximately EUR 8.5 million.

Below 8%.Unemployment Rate Drops To 7.8 Percent; 114,000 Jobs Added To Payrolls -- The nation's unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent in September from 8.1 percent in August even though just 114,000 jobs were added to private and public payrolls, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. Those hard-to-reconcile figures -- a decline in the jobless rate even though job growth was relatively weak -- appear to be at least partly explained by a sharp increase in the number of Americans who found part-time jobs and counted themselves as employed.

China's (lack of) cultural exports.WHY CHINA LACKS GANGNAM STYLE -- In China, the Gangnam phenomenon carries a special pique. It has left people asking, Why couldn't we come up with that? China, after all, dwarfs Korea in political clout, money, and market power, and it cranks out more singers and dancers in a single city than Korea does nationwide. Chinese political leaders are constantly talking about the need for "soft power"--they have dotted the globe with Confucius Institutes to rival the Alliance Française, and they have expanded radio and television stations in smaller countries that might be tired of American-dominated news. Last year, the Communist Party even declared culture a national priority and vowed to produce its own share of global cultural brands.

YAY!Uniqlo: How Japanese Billionaire Tadashi Yanai Plans To Clothe America -- In the course of two and a half decades, Yanai, who's 63, has built Uniqlo into the world's fourth largest retail apparel company, –behind Inditex of Spain (which owns Zara), H&M and Gap. Uniqlo has $10.6 billion in revenue from 1,163 stores--most of which are in Japan. Yanai's stake in Uniqlo's parent company Fast Retailing is worth $11.5 billion, up from $10 billion since March, making him the richest man in Japan by a wide margin. Yanai is more interested in becoming a top global clothing retailer than anything else.